The present invention is concerned with photographic printing systems. In particular, it is directed to paper feed systems for use in photographic printing systems.
Photographic printers produce color or black and white prints from negative or in some cases from slides. High intensity light is passed through a negative and imaged on photographic print paper. A photographic emulsion layer on the print paper is exposed and subsequently processed to produce a print of the scene contained in the negative.
Photographic processing centers typically process film from many customers. The printers used in these processing centers must be capable of producing both color and black and white prints from a range of negative sizes which may include, for example, 110, 120, 126, 35 millimeter, 70 millimeter, and 21/4.times.23/4 inch negative sizes. The desired prints may have 10 or more different sizes and may be either with or without a border. In addition, some of the orders may call for multiple prints from a single negative.
In order to increase efficiency and minimize the time required to fulfill customer orders, high speed printers in which many exposures are made on a single roll of print paper are desirable. After the many exposures are made, the portion of the roll which has been exposed is removed from the printer, is photoprocessed to produce prints, and is cut into individual prints. The prints are then sorted by customer order and ultimately packaged and sent to the customer.
While prior art printers have been generally satisfactory, they have had shortcomings. They have required complicated adjustments by the operator to change from one of the large number of possible combinations of negative size and print size to another. This has slowed the overall speed and reduced the total efficiency of the printer.